Nit Picks And Quick Hits on Plame

My think piece is below, but there was some fun stuff in the reporting today that I wanted to mention.

(1)  Flame On!  Novak said that Plame's name was available in Who's Who, but he never said that was where he got it.  And I'll add this this - Judy Miller did not get "Valerie Flame" out of Who's Who, or from Google [OK, maybe she did, says J Pod].

I don't read too much into that - someone, probably an irate feminist, got tired of hearing about "Wilson's wife" and looked her up.  Or, someone who knew her from her early days at the CIA (Tenet?  McLaughlin?) always remembered her by her maiden name.  Someday, Novak may tell us, but Judy seems to have forgotten, at least for purposes of grand jury testimony.

(2) Who is "Victoria Wilson"?  Beats me, but that is what Judy wrote in her notes, and where is the trust?

My third interview with Mr. Libby occurred on July 12, two days before Robert D. Novak's column identified Ms. Plame for the first time as a C.I.A. operative. I believe I spoke to Mr. Libby by telephone from my home in Sag Harbor, N.Y.

I told Mr. Fitzgerald I believed that before this call, I might have called others about Mr. Wilson's wife. In my notebook I had written the words "Victoria Wilson" with a box around it, another apparent reference to Ms. Plame, who is also known as Valerie Wilson.

I told Mr. Fitzgerald that I was not sure whether Mr. Libby had used this name or whether I just made a mistake in writing it on my own. Another possibility, I said, is that I gave Mr. Libby the wrong name on purpose to see whether he would correct me and confirm her identity.

File this under "Unsolved Mysteries" - Howard Fineman wrote a piece originally titled "Victoria's Secret", as per these excerpts; per Atrios, Mike Isikoff called her "Vickie".  Que pasa?  Did these reporters share one droll source, did they gossip with each other, did they have Group Brainfreeze, or what?  And if Miller is lying to her own diary, why not pick a code name, like "Diana Smith"?  [Digby is also puzzled.]

(3)  Bill, You Should Have Been Straight With Us:

Bill Keller, current NY Times editor, discussing the jailing of Judy Miller on July  6:

TERENCE SMITH: Now, the prosecutor made the point in court that not only does he know the identity of Judy Miller's source, that he -- that source has signed a waiver of confidentiality, in which case, what is Judy Miller defending?

BILL KELLER: I don't know whether the special prosecutor knows the identity of her source.

OK, I squawked at the time about that statement, and squawked about their phony editorials pretending that the identity of her source was a mystery.  And now the Times arrives with their latest version:

...But Mr. Sulzberger and the paper's executive editor, Bill Keller, knew few details about Ms. Miller's conversations with her confidential source other than his name.

[BIG SKIP]

It was in these early days that Mr. Keller and Mr. Sulzberger learned Mr. Libby's identity. Neither man asked Ms. Miller detailed questions about her conversations with him.

You cannot imagine my lack of surprise.

(4)  Where Is The Love?

I thought Libby and Judy were like, best buds, plotting the war and misleading the nation into ruin.  Instead, she tells us this:

I told the grand jury about my last encounter with Mr. Libby. It came in August 2003, shortly after I attended a conference on national security issues held in Aspen, Colo. After the conference, I traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyo. At a rodeo one afternoon, a man in jeans, a cowboy hat and sunglasses approached me. He asked me how the Aspen conference had gone. I had no idea who he was.

"Judy," he said. "It's Scooter Libby."

(5) Why So Shy?

The Times has a pop-up graphic which they call "The Leak Timeline".  First entry - President Bush's State of the Union with the "16 Words".  Second entry - Joe Wilson's op-ed.

Hey, what about Nick Kristof's column of May 6, 2003, which brought Wilson into the debate?  What about Kristof's follow-up column of June 13?  Why doesn't the Times want to mention those great moments in breakthrough journalism?

Gee, I have a guess - the Kristof column was shot through with misinformation, Wilson later explained that he had been misquoted or misattributed, and the Times has never addressed any of this.

Well, that's my thought - we eagerly await the Times explanation.  As if.  And don't look for any mention of Kristof's role in the big Times story about Miller and Libby.  On June 23 Libby was pushing back against anonymous leaks, but the Times says nothing about where those leaks were aired, or how well they stood up.

OK, that was fun, but I try to think about what it all means below.

UPDATE:  Murray Waas - Out of the Mainstream, or Ahead of the Pack?  Ahead of the pack, and I was a fool to doubt him!  As per Mr. Wass, and contra the Times, the WaPo, and Newsweek, Ms. Miller's June 23 notes did refer to a conversation that referenced Wilson's wife, although perhaps not by name.

Comments

[Jerkweed]

TM-re: Point 4:

Judy accidentally bumps into Scooter at a rodeo in Wyoming?? At the same time Cheney is vacationing there???

And you think that shows a lack of love?????

[Christopher Fotos]

File this under "Unsolved Mysteries" - Howard Fineman wrote a piece originally titled "Victoria's Secret", as per these excerpts; per Atrios, Mike Isikoff called her "Vickie". Que pasa? Did these reporters share one droll source, did they gossip with each other, did they have Group Brainfreeze, or what?

It's the turning of the aspens.

[Victoria Flame]

Where has Joe "Big Mouth" Wilson been hiding these days?

[kim]

Desperado Joe is galloping out West trying to get out of Confabulation County.k But he has his facts and his maps upside down, and is about to cross the border into the hands of the Law.

Journalists without borders has done him wrong.
==============================================

[pollyusa]

New Time story up.

This is new on Novak's first source. CIA? Tenet? Does that qualify as a senior administration official?

Another character in the drama remains unnamed: the original source for columnist Robert Novak, who wrote the first piece naming Plame. Fitzgerald, says a lawyer who's involved in the case, "knows who it is—and it's not someone at the White House.
Time"

Couple of quotes regarding Novak you may not have seen.

I'd like to say a lot about the case, but because of my attorney's advice I can't. But I will. And there might be some surprising things.
CNN 6/05

I don't know this publication but interesting information in the article including this.

“There’s no question he rolled over.” According to our sources, Miller shared Plame’s identity with her perfidious fellow neocon after deciding not to publish it herself; Novak then called his two White House sources

[MeTooThen]

...perfidious fellow neocon..."

It is to laugh.

Or not.

...

And Father Saddam sits in his cell awaiting trial.

Is there no justice?

...

Evil, that's what it is.

Damn neocons.

...

Hey, don't be so sad.

Maybe the "minutemen" will kill enough Iraqi women, children, doctors, politicians, policemen, reporters, NGO's etc., and the illegal occupying RepublithugNazis will leave Iraq at once.

And then Father Saddam can come back to power, and with the help of the French UN diplomats, all order will be restored.

...

If only.

Courage.

/rant off

[pollyusa]

Let me add this from a Wilson interview, Novak origibally told Wilson is source was CIA then later said he misspoke.

I've often thought Tenet could have been Novak's first source.

But Wilson was caught off guard when around July 9 he received a phone call from Robert Novak, who, according to Wilson, said he'd been told by a C.I.A. source that Wilson's wife worked for the agency. "Can you confirm or deny?" Wilson recalls Novak as saying. "I need another source."

Wilson says he replied, "I'm not going to answer any questions about my wife."

snip

Wilson says, he called Novak and said, "When you asked for the confirmation you said a 'C.I.A. source.'" "I misspoke," Wilson says Novak replied.

[mary mapes]

Miller's a patsy..she tipped off both sides, only one side didn't take the bait...who was that stanger that escorted Novak down the street?

[jerry]

I first hear the Plame story on the car radio and for several days thought her name was Valerie Flame.

[lemondloulou54]

Maybe the whole "Victoria Wilson" "Valerie Flame" interchange was how Rove and Libby decided to refer to Ms. Plame to reporters so that when asked, "Did you leak the name "Valerie Plame" to reporters could always be "No." It's the inverse of Judy saying, ". . . . I gave Mr. Libby the wrong name on purpose to see whether he would correct me and confirm her identity. "

[michael schrage]

question: if judy miller - as she hereself acknowledges - had a security clearance and scooter libby tells her 'classified' information, precisely what part of the espionage act has been violated? given that no story was published and 'secret' information was given to someone who the government itself had vouched for as 'secure' and trustworthy, what's the crime here? Institutionally bizarre journalism; yes - illegal secrets illegally disclosed...? hmmmm....

[kim]

Hotta Millhari.
=====================

[Jeff]

One interesting dimension of Miller's article that I have not seen noted elsewhere yet has to do with all the things Libby tells Miller, according to Miller and her notes, across the three meetings about what the VP's office knew about Wilson and when they knew it. Look in particular at the claim from the July 8 meeting that Wilson himself was the source for one of two major pieces of intel about a potential Niger-Iraq uranium deal. That is the first time I've heard that, and don't know what to make of it, or rather, I can make a couple of different things of it. Clearly, Libby is not referring to Wilson's 2002 trip, whose results he goes on to belittle by consigning them, a la Rice, to the bowels of the agency; and this is presumably not the rightwing talking point that Wilson's report of a former Nigerien official anxious that maybe the Iraqis wanted to talk about uranium, which they never did, constitutes some kind of smoking gun provided by Wilson himself. Rather, it appears to be a reference to WIlson's 1999 trip to Niger at the behest of the CIA. Note that this trip shows up in the SSCI, and the 1999 intel about the effort to set up a meeting, brokered by Baraka, an Algerian businessman, between Niger and Iraq is in there. But at least in the unredacted sections, they are not connected. (I believe the status of this intel as intel on pursuit of uranium was later debunked by the Duelfer report. And nothing in the SSCI report indicates anything about uranium in the reporting on that 1999 meeting.) I will note there is a somewhat obscure reference to this business in Wilson's interview with TPM back in September of 2003, where it sounds like this was a piece of intel that Wilson included in his debrief in 2002, though I can't be sure.

What's the point? At least, Libby appears to have known about Wilson's 1999 trip, which he probably found out about while doing a work-up on Wilson after Kristof's article. And he may be garbling some of the details -- he appears to back away from some related claims (also floated by Fleischer in that week in July, rebutted by Wilson) on July 12, though it's not clear Miller realized that's what he was doing. And here's the interesting thing, confusion -- on the part of or fostered by Bush administration folks -- between WIlson's trips appears to have played a significant role in the nepotism charge on Wilson's trip. Check this out from the July 27 2005 WaPo, Pincus and VandeHei, Pincus here clearly referencing what he was told by a still publicly unknown source on July 12 2003:

Using background conversations with at least three journalists and other means, Bush officials attacked Wilson's credibility. They said that his 2002 trip to Niger was a boondoggle arranged by his wife, but CIA officials say that is incorrect. One reason for the confusion about Plame's role is that she had arranged a trip for him to Niger three years earlier on an unrelated matter, CIA officials told The Washington Post.

Personally, i think this speaks to my longstanding claim that Pincus was given the boondoggle claim in the first person (that is, it was someone like Hadley), but TM may still defend the third person claim (so it was someone like Tenet saying, "Listen to what those jokers in the WH are claiming, . . ."). But in either case, we have the CIA telling Pincus that there was confusion on someone's part over the 2002 trip and the 1999 trip, which Plame really did play a substantial role in setting up (though that doesn't necessarily mean it was a boondoggle -- we are still talking Niger here). We know from various sources now that in fact the White House, and more particularly the Veep's peeps, went to the CIA after Kristof to find out all they could about Wilson, so this is presumably how the confusion got started. It is worth noting that the implication of Pincus' report seems to be that Valerie Plame was dragged into all of this mess, and out into the open, as a result of this confusion. Or in any case, I'm willing to guess that if and when we get the fuller contours of the story, Wilson's 1999 trip to Niger will play a significant, if comitragic, role in that story.

[Newby]

I think John Podhoretz has solved this mystery:

"What if, therefore, Judy Miller's source for the name "Valerie Plame" was....Google?"

paging Douglas Feith-there's a challenger for your title.

[Jim E.]

Was John Bolton's then-chief of staff an analyst at WINPAC when the story broke? Could that person be the source?

[BR]

Who are you referring to, Jim E?

****

This is getting hilarious. Did Miller sleep through CBSgate? A rodeo? A man dressed in jeans, a cowboy hat and sunglasses? Good grief, did Lucy Ramirez send him too??!!

[Syl]

Jeff

There was no confusion. There was a meeting in 1999. Wilson reported it back then. He confirmed it from another source in 2002.

That 'uranium' was not mentioned, only surmised, is meaningless. It wasn't about cowpeas.

Duelfer's report was limited to documentation he found inside Iraq. He found nothing to either confirm or deny such a meeting in Niger. Just a general finding of no evidence.

Wilson's report that Nigerian officials denied something illegal took place (actual sale) or that it couldn't (because of French involvement...Hah!) was not deemed noteworthy by the CIA. His confirmation of earlier reports of a meeting with an Iraqi delegation was.

That his wife was instrumental in sending him, whether it was generally know she had done so in the past as well, only goes to the point that it was not Cheney who sent Wilson to Niger then ignored his non-report.

[Syl]

BR

"did Lucy Ramirez send him too??!!"

LOL!

[Syl]

Novak: "And there might be some surprising things."

Back in June they may have been surprising. Will they still be surprising in October?

[pollyusa]

BR

I'm guess Jim E is talking about Fleitz.

According to two sources, Bolton's former chief of staff, Fred Fleitz, was at least one of the sources of the classified information about Valerie Plame that flowed through the Bush administration and eventually made its way into Bob Novak's now infamous column.
Huffington

BR

Forgive me for not answering your earlier questions on the Isikoff thread, I've been out of town with no access to a computer. I will post my reply at the Isikoff thread.

[BR]

Thank you, Polly. I'll check there later. Gotta go for a latté break!

Well, as soon as I've posted my next coded message to Kim :)

[BR]

"Hotta Millhari" – are we thinking of a Triple Cross?

NYT – Their version – 10/16/05:

"Miller is known for her expertise in intelligence and security issues and her ability to cultivate relationships with influential sources in government."

"…most people I talk to have been troubled and puzzled by Judy's seeming ability to operate outside of conventional reportorial channels and managerial controls," said Todd S. Purdum, a Washington reporter for The Times. "Partly because of that, many people have worried about whether this was the proper fight to fight."

NYT – Miller's version – 10/16/05
Does anyone have a workable link to it? I notice a commenter above mentioned her having a security clearance??

Friend like Pearl or foe? (9th paragraph on)

[Jim E.]

BR,
pollyusa is correct. I was referring to Fleitz. I didn't know his name. Since I posted the above comment, Kevin Drum at Washingtonmonthly has written an entire post about it. His speculation: Fleitz (who worked in Plame's division of WINPAC in the CIA) leaked to his boss Bolton, who, in turn, leaked to Novak and Miller. Bolton is personal friends with Miller and visited her in jail. Just speculation.

[Jim E.]

From what I can tell, Bolton has never been in front of the GJ.

[pollyusa]

Miller's version

[cathyf]

...Fleitz (who worked in Plame's division of WINPAC in the CIA) ... his boss Bolton...

Jim E. -- did you check with the CIA before "outting" CIA employee Fleitz?!?!? Better hide your ISP info... Fitzgerald will be coming after you on Espionage Act charges next!

cathy :-)

[Jeff]

There was no confusion. There was a meeting in 1999. Wilson reported it back then. He confirmed it from another source in 2002.

Syl, I believe you are incorrect and confused. (I myself was about the two different claims of uranium pursuit until recently.) The basis for my belief that there were two separate 1999 incidents is the SSCI report, the Butler report, and the Duelfer report, which refer to this other incident, plus the fact that Wilson's book sure makes it seem like he learned about the 1999 meeting with Baghdad Bob for the first time in 2002 (though it is possible it was not, since it appears that his 1999 trip may remain classified in some respects, so we wouldn't hear details from him).

I'm curious as to what you base your claim that there was only one 1999 incident or meeting on, aside from what we've now heard LIbby told Miller. Also, is there any other evidence out there that Wilson provided the earlier intel, regardless of whether it concerned the same incident he reported on in 2002 or not?

That 'uranium' was not mentioned, only surmised, is meaningless. It wasn't about cowpeas.

Duelfer's report was limited to documentation he found inside Iraq. He found nothing to either confirm or deny such a meeting in Niger. Just a general finding of no evidence.

Incorrect again! Duelfer found no evidence in general to show that Iraq sought uranium from abroad or renewed indigenous production after 1991, but in fact he reports evidence of absence of pursuit of uranium with regard to the meeting between Niger and Iraq that did not involved Baghdad Bob, but rather Wissam Zahawie (as he is referred to in the Duelfer report). Your "in Iraq, not in Niger" is therefore not telling in this regard. But this presumes you appreciate that there was an additional claim about a different 1999 meeting from the one we have heard so much about.

Maybe more on the rest later. And again, we've got a report from Pincus that the CIA thinks there was confusion between the two trips, which is interesting, however it is best interpreted.

Again, I'm curious what else you've seen on the fact that Wilson gave intel back in 1999 that was one of the key pieces of evidence for Cheney's interest in the pursuit of uranium by Iraq in Niger.

[Ron Brynaert]

Great thoughts like usual...except for the link to Podhoretz.

"What if, in the course of normal events, somebody told her that Wilson was well-connected and knew what he was talking about because his wife worked for the CIA? What if she then went to Google to look up stuff about Wilson and found his bio online at the Middle East Institute?"

In the "J-Pod" scenario...the "in the course of normal events" somebody would be Judy's source...not freaking Google.

[narciso]

Well it could have been Kate Jones, (for those observant Alias viewers)Anyone report
Jason Vest of the Nation, Boston Phoenix,etc
for outing the Agency's new ops chief; (a
name even the AP has kept underwraps for now; How about Woodward's outing of the Afghan Sect. Chief; or also in the AP's
revealing the name and background of Milan based officers in the Imam Nasr affair; or the times revealing tail numbers and corporate officers in "rendition air"

[jukeboxgrad]

"From what I can tell, Bolton has never been in front of the GJ"

NBC says Bolton did indeed appear (link).

[Syl]

Je

The SSCI report is quite clear that Valery had a role in Wilson's selection for the 2002 trip. See the next thread for section and cite.

Wilson's objections are in the report. But his criticism of the memo seems rather strange, because it doesn't explain WHY the memo even exists.

[ahem]

my longstanding claim that Pincus was given the boondoggle claim in the first person

Um, Jeff: Pincus himself talked about it in his Nieman piece back in July.

Btw, Syl: your verbosity is matched by your capacity to play fast and loose with established facts. Have you considered a job with the SSCI?

[Electrolux]

"My name is Victoria Wilson. My journey is beginning. A journey that I hope will open the doors of life to me and link my past with my future. A journey that will take me to a strange and dark place, to the edge of the sea high atop Widows' Hill. A house called Collinwood. A world I've never known, with people I've never met. People who tonight are still only shadows in my mind, but who will soon fill the days and nights of my tomorrows."

[Jon H]

Here's a funny thought.

Rove isn't as much of a genius as he's said to be.

He could have avoided all of this simply by saying "Wilson happens to be sleeping with a woman at the CIA, and she got him hired for the trip to Niger."

This would have put his hiring in question, without naming his WIFE as the CIA employee, but ALSO creating the impression that he's an adulterer, yet he really does sleep with her, so it wouldn't be slander.

It would have been perfect. The media would probably never, ever suspect that the CIA 'other woman' happened to be Wilson's wife.

[russ]

Geez! Now McQuire is speculating and raving like a dim-witted Dem...

[kim]

You should go look at Jay Rosen go wild.
========================================

[Jim E.]

JBG,
Thanks -- I hadn't seen that report.

[Jeff]

Syl - Am I to take it that you concede on the points I actually made in my response to you? Either way, the SSCI is not clear on Plame's role, not clear at all, though it is clear that she had some role in Wilson's 2002 trip, which Wilson in his book does not contest, as long as you actually read it, instead of reading what Steno Sue Schmidt incorrectly quotes out of it.

ahem - I'd be interested to hear where exactly in his Nieman report piece Pincus makes clear that his July 12 2003 source is making the claim him- or herself that Wilson's trip was a boondoggle set up by his wife. It is what I believe, but TM has made a strong case on several occasions that it could have been Tenet reporting what the White House was saying, rather than asserting it himself.

[Appalled Moderate]

If we are talking about indicting Libby and Rove (and perhaps Miller)on leaking classified information via the Espinonage Act, how does Wilson escape?

If we indict Rove and Libby on perjury or obstruction, but do not indict on an underlying crime, how is this different than Starr's pursuit of Clinton over L'affaire Lewinski?

I am have problems with an investigation that just ends up indicting a couple of toxic people for lying about committing hardball politics. It is like impeaching Clinton for lying about sex. The conduct does deserve censure and exposure, but not jail time and legal bills.

I do really hope, if things go as they seem to be going, that all those folks who made such strong declarative statements on Clinton's impeachment are willing to make similar strong declarative statements about this situation. And that the position taken isn't a 180 degree reversal.

[Jon H]

"If we are talking about indicting Libby and Rove (and perhaps Miller)on leaking classified information via the Espinonage Act, how does Wilson escape?"

It's my understanding that not all classified information is treated the same, as far as leaks go. We don't have an Official Secrets Act. For the most part, it isn't illegal to leak classified information (though it's certainly a firing offense and against policy).

The Espionage Act may be applicable to Plame's identity, but not applicable to Wilson's trip, or to the level of information he released about his trip.

[Jon H]

"If we indict Rove and Libby on perjury or obstruction, but do not indict on an underlying crime, how is this different than Starr's pursuit of Clinton over L'affaire Lewinski?"

One is a criminal case which involves national security and a group of people at the highest level of government. The other is a civil case over a private matter.

That strikes me as a significant difference. Do you see them as equivalent?

"It is like impeaching Clinton for lying about sex. The conduct does deserve censure and exposure, but not jail time and legal bills."

Lying in a matter related to national security doesn't deserve jail time?

[j.west]

Little has been mentioned as to motive in the Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame indictment scenario. Try this one on for size.

The saddest, most pathetic figures in Washington are ex-ambassadors to obscure countries who are associated with totally out of power political parties.

These throwaways tend to be “consultants” (read unemployed) and they desperately want to be “back in the game”.

Anyone who has been a marginal “B” list player who finds themselves eliminated from lists altogether, can think of nothing else than regaining their former status, or better yet, making the leap to the “A” list.

Multiply this desire by the ego quotient exemplified by Joseph Wilson.

Add to this formula a spouse of which little is known except:

She is a partisan democrat (Gore donations).

She apparently has a taste for the good life in foreign capitals.

She has enough seniority to be influential in decisions but junior enough to be held unaccountable.

And let us assume that everything started innocently enough with the CIA decision to send someone to Niger to inquire about the yellowcake story. Valerie, wishing to help her husband find some small role in the “game”, convinces her superiors to let Joe have the assignment (without pay).

Joe takes the trip and returns to tell the CIA (in an oral report) information that tends to bolster the Saddam/Yellowcake connection (according to the 9/11 commission).

Joe finds he is still cloaked in obscurity with no hope of rejoining the “game” while the current administration is in power.

Fast forwarded to 2003. WMDs are not found in Iraq and the Kerry campaign is centering their focus - not on domestic policy - but on “Bush lied” foreign policy.

Who emerges as a consultant to the Kerry camp? Our friend Joe.

Is it in the realm of possibility that some bargain, either explicit or implied, might have been struck? Is there someone in the Kerry organization who would intimate that if Joe were able, somehow, to generate a multimedia buzz that Bush was less than truthful in the lead up to the war in Iraq that maybe there would be a posting as ambassador to a country more in keeping with Joe’s talent – say France.

[BR]

Thanks for the link to Miller's verion, Polly :)

Jon H, that was really funny... it would've given the MSM a prankish trojan horse. When the culprits finally do go down, though (please, Mr. Fitz, do the right thing, soon), they'll probably blame Rove for not thinking that up to have saved them after the fact in another Plamegate timewarp.

[Newby]

Hardy har har:

"In an interview yesterday, Wilson said that once the criminal questions are settled, he and his wife may file a civil lawsuit against Bush, Cheney and others seeking damages for the alleged harm done to Plame's career.

If they do so, the current state of the law makes it likely that the suit will be allowed to proceed -- and Bush and Cheney will face questioning under oath -- while they are in office. The reason for that is a unanimous 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit against then-President Bill Clinton could go forward immediately, a decision that was hailed by conservatives at the time."

[Gary Maxwell]

Ok I want to officially declare my total and unequivical boredom with all of this. I dont see Rove testifying vountarily 4 times and having his own words used against him. Same for Libby.

There is no there there. Lets move on to the DeLay/Earle dustup. While there is no there there either, we do have it obvious that its a political battle and that is much more fun that reading 2nd hand report of testimony and reporters notes for god sake.

[Geek, Esq.]

If we are talking about indicting Libby and Rove (and perhaps Miller)on leaking classified information via the Espinonage Act, how does Wilson escape?

A few thoughts:

1) The Bush administration had already gone public with the Niger/uranium story. Wilson's comments were directly in connection with that story. He was, so to speak, correcting the version that was released.

2) But, you say, isn't that what the leakers were doing about Joe Wilson? Big difference: What Joe Wilson's wife did for a living was not a matter of public debate before this.

3) The details of a trip to Africa, the details of which had been mooted by intervening events, is much different than blowing the cover of an active intelligence asset.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

If Joe Wilson decides to sue he'll be opening himself up to discovery procedures. And then he'll realllllly be sorry.

But, as to j.west's movie script above, it can be given an even more sinister twist. Wilson knew about the forged documents back in February 2002, because the CIA cabal who cooked them up, showed them to him back then; 'Ha ha, Joe, get it? We put incorrect names on them, they'll rely on them and it'll blow up in their faces.'

[Cecil Turner]

He was, so to speak, correcting the version that was released.

He was leaking defense-related information in wartime in an effort to undermine the war effort, and he was lying. There's not much moral high ground there.

Big difference: What Joe Wilson's wife did for a living was not a matter of public debate before this.

It directly related to a false impression Wilson was spreading. And even if it was a technical cover violation, it's hard to see how it materially affected Plame's actual duties. Seems to me in order to claim it was a big deal, you have to show it was intentional. (Retaliation against a whistleblower would be a big deal, even if the blown cover part was an accident.)

The details of a trip to Africa, the details of which had been mooted by intervening events . . .

Seems to me that's the bulk of the INR memo, which was classified TS. It's hard to see why we'd get excited about leaking the S/NF background paragraph about Plame, and then say the rest of it didn't matter.

[NewbyNewby]

For you CT-In oral arguments before Judge Hogan:

"This case is not about a whistle-blower," Fitzgerald added. "It's about potential retaliation against a whistle-blower."

[Cecil Turner]

"Potential" being the key word. But I agree it's a pretty good indicator Wilson isn't in serious jeopardy.